Rite at saint's tomb.—At Axó or Hasákeui, in the plain of Cappadocia, is the tomb of St. Makrina, sister of Gregory Theológos. It is a marble structure with a gable top. We were directed to walk round it three times widdershins. In the event of meeting robbers a small vow to the Saint would preserve our property. I find the tomb mentioned in the work quoted above, p. 204, where it is stated that the tomb is a cenotaph, that incubation is practised at it, and that those who make a vow and do not pay it are unable to walk round the tomb.
Wells and springs.—Below the church, in which the above tomb stands, down a steep stair in one of those burrows in the rock which are so common in the plains of Cappadocia, is an (
Greek characters), or sacred spring. The rock is porous, and the water filters freely through it into small basins cut in the side. It once flowed at a point higher up in this underground passage, and the dry basin is there to testify. A woman turned Moslem and came and washed her baby in it; the holy water thus defiled miraculously ceased, but reappeared in its present basins lower down[1] (July 9, 1911).
At Strovitsi in the Peloponnese, near the site of the ancient Lepreum, is a spring which is said to have aphrodisiac properties when drunk by men. My informant was (Greek characters), a native of the neighbouring village of Zourtsa, and by profession a muleteer (Feb. 17, 1911).
In the island of Melos, in the hills south of Palaiochóra, is said to be a salt well much used by women and of great medicinal value in all feminine diseases according to our muleteer (Nov. 27, 1910),
Near Phárasa, a village in the Taurus, is the spring of St. Chrysostom, which is said to flow from the Saint's eyes. When a wicked man approaches it, it dries up. When I visited it, it was pouring out of the hillside and falling in large waterfalls. The water was clear, but slightly oily in appearance. I could see steps underneath the stream leading into the hole from which it flowed, and my guide, a boy of the village called (Greek characters), told me that, if the water was not flowing, you could go down thirty steps into a cavern where a mysterious "Boom Boom" was incessantly audible. About 100 yards from the spring was a small chapel.
- ↑ Cf. Folk-Lore, vol. xxii., pp. 211-2, (Clare).
